Nationalist MP and former minister Jesmond Mugliett this morning endorsed Labour's energy plan.

Speaking on One Breakfast this morning, Mr Mugliett said one of the positive aspects of the Labour proposals was that it was based on a private-public partnership.

It was also good that Labour was proposing a mix of energy sources. He had still to see a contract on the purchase of electricity through the interconnector.

Mr Mugliett said the long-term power purchase agreement being proposed by Labour would also lead to price stability.

Asked whether the plan was doable, he said he could not understand who so many doubts had been cast, notably on the public-private partnership. Indeed, even the Gozo tunnel would probably need to be a public-private partnership if it was feasible.

Having a private partner meant lower prices, greater efficiency and a stronger input for a project to succeed.

He said the commitment to reducing the tariffs by a quarter by reducing the unit cost of electricity to 9c6 was attainable, given that just with the interconnector, the unit price would drop to 11c. Current costs were between 18c and 20c he observed.

For Malta's economic competitiveness, the power tariffs were the single most important issue, he said, hence the importance of the matter in this election.

Reducing the tariffs could lead to more investment and better salaries.

Mr Mugliett said that he had been critical of the government's energy policy, such as spending €80 million on smart meters when it would have been better to invest in a gas terminal. He regretted that when he sought information from the government on why the possibility of having a gas terminal was turned down, the reports were not published.

Having a gas terminal supplied by ships was a relatively quick solution which would save money for the country.

He could not understand how the government, when Josef Bonnici was minister, had been heading towards gas power generation, and then the direction was turned back to oil.

Mr Mugliett said hedging agreements should be handed to the private sector, given that the arrangements reached to date were not necessarily in Malta's interest.

He asked how the PN was saying it would make its own energy proposals in the next few days when an Energy Policy was issued by the government just last December. What could be new? Clearly, he said, there was discontinuity in PN/government policies.

In other comments, Mr Mugliett said the volatility of the electorate appeared to have decreased, in that more people appeared to have decided on their voting intentions. Nonetheless, this was a long electoral campaign and it would be a challenge for Labour to retain its current lead.

He admitted that he missed door-to-door campaigning - he will not be seeking re-election.